From what I understand, this episode jumps forward in the Haruhi timeline to novel 3, skipping novel 2, which pertains to the “other space” incident. It’s a month after Haruhi booted up SOS Brigade by exploiting Mikuru’s moeness, and Itsuki has joined them. It’s pretty much revealed to Kyon that no one in SOS Brigade is normal… maybe not even him. Itsuki seems to have a clue of what’s going on but his further abilities aren’t revealed, Mikuru is probably either a combat waitress or a club-to-death angel from the future, and Yuki is a slightly more useful Emiya Shirou. As for Haruhi and Kyon… one can destroy the world and the other can stop her.

There’s a very short moment of peace in the SOS Brigade that Kyon was reflecting on (world cramping incident) until Haruhi barges in and has a grand idea of playing baseball for the sake of promoting SOS, but she’s just really bored. They’re not the baseball club, after all, so they try to round up some more people, including Kyon’s potato-like friends and Mikuru’s friend (from our space-time… score!).

Haruhi then uses her usual tactics, i.e. strong-arming and exploiting Mikuru’s sexuality, to secure practice time and equipment for SOS. The practice doesn’t exactly go well… Mikuru and Yuki have completely different reactions to the ball. Mikuru has complete fear of it while Yuki has complete indifference to it. This leads Kyon to ask Yuki for a rainout (which, I guess, she’s capable of). Though has anyone ever played shortstop with as much moe as Mikuru did, cowering under her glove?

For the game, Kyon’s 11 year old sister is their ninth member, much to Haruhi’s semi-dismay. She quickly moves on and has everyone draw lots for batting order and field position, only she gets the plumb pitching/lead off spot. She doesn’t seem like much of a team player… she’s pretty much their Kobe. (Kyon would be Smush Parker, and Mikuru is about as emasculated as Lamar Odom is these days. Yep, NBA playoffs… I love this game!) As a pitcher, Haruhi tosses overhand and isn’t too shabby hitting the ball either. Unfortunately, the rest of her team stinks. Worse than the Kansas City Royals. When the team is doing their worst, Haruhi deploys their secret weapon: her and Mikuru in cheerleader outfits and miniskirts which has predictable results for anyone who has watched the equivalent ああっ女神さまっ story where Urd breaks down the batters by zipping down her uniform. Unfortunately, SOS Brigade didn’t have the same luck that the Goddess Fantastic Club had. Not even Haruhi’s blue and Mikuru’s red panties can stem the tide… maybe they need to borrow Ayumi’s neko-pantsu or something. They’re still getting owned.

(Watching Haruhi give out hand signals, anyone else think of One Piece‘s baseball special? Where Luffy was making the same dumb signs, and Nami’s, uh, cleavage causes Sanji to screw up? Yep, pretty much the same.)

During this period of getting their butt-kicked, Itsuki warns Kyon that losing will mean the end of the world (since Haruhi’s boredom and temper seems to control this Mononoke Hime-class monster, and she somehow fabricated a scenario in that Kyon would become the hero…). He asks Kyon if Kyon can save the world “the same way,” which Kyon patently rejects. How did Kyon save the world originally? Well, I have an spoiler-riffic brainstorm. Anyway, Itsuki eventually asks Yuki to help them win by reprogramming the bat and ball such that they hit homers like they were on Jason Giambi’s “vitamin-e” shots and toss pitches like Super Baseball Simulator 1.000.

(For anyone who has played SBS 1.000 for the SNES, it’s the greatest baseball video game ever. Save your lame arguments for MLB 2k2 or whatnot– nothing compares to SBS 1.000. It’s the baseball equivalent of Tecmo Bowl. Damn. I seriously want to play it now and create an SOS team.)

In any case, they win the game, Kyon gets a smile from Haruhi, and the world is saved. Until next week, desho desho.

The SOS Brigade Awesomeness Index

UP Haruhi’s utter domination over Mikuru… part of me believes that the show is really about a school club; part of me believes that the show is really about a bunch of lunatical aliens, espers, and witches; part of me believes that the show is really a docu-drama about a hentai series kinda like Boogie Nights, only we don’t see the “Haruhi raping Mikuru and making her Haruhi’s submissive slave” episode yet. Though, I wouldn’t count out any of the three possibilities above.

Also, was anyone even remotely surprised that Haruhi offered up Mikuru to secure the practice time with the baseball team? Or were we disappointed that she didn’t rip off Mikuru’s top to seal the deal?

(Also, don’t think for a second that baseball is a throw away plot idea. There’s has to be something connecting Haruhi and baseball… everything in this series thus far has been deliberate and calculated.)

DOWN Mikuru’s meido power ranking… not as powerful as Wilhelmina … suckier at baseball than Mariel… lack of Mahoro-class breast missiles. I’m leaning towards a low ranking, but I’m willing to listen to arguments otherwise, especially if said arguments were dripping in Mikuru meido fanservice.

DOWN Mikuru’s fielding skillz… she’s no Ichiro. Hell, she’s not even a David Ortiz when it comes to fielding.

UP Haruhi’s baseball skillz… Haruhi scores major points for pitching overhand… that says, “Fear me.” The pitching the same location says, “I have a big Kobe-sized ego.” In other words, Suns in 5.

UP Sport themes. I like this episode more than Hanaukyo‘s equivalent baseball episode, but nothing, absolutely nothing, tops Fumoffu‘s rugby episode. Pantheon episode up there with Cowboy Bebop 5. Though who would win if SOS Brigade went up against Sagara?

UP Harem-like substance… what did Itsuki mean that “that might happen again” if Kyon is too nice to Mikuru? Is Haruhi jealous that Kyon is getting close to Mikuru… or because Mikuru is getting close to Kyon? In any case, I hope the correct answer is, “threesome.” (Emiya Shirou? You reading this? Take notes, buddy.)

DOWN The plot spitball… I think that the story would have been better served in a normal progression… now… well… what exactly did skipping ahead buy us in terms of story flow? Not much… still mysterious, only there’s a ton more questions than answers, and there’s less suspense when the world cramping story does come since. We know they live and play baseball afterwards. I think jumping forward then jumping back only works if it teases the viewer, and episode 1 was a great example of that. We were all teased into thinking, “What kind of twisted, non-Sunrise-employed mind would come up with such a train wreck of a story?” Only…

UP The Bunny Girl faint… that episode was really an indication of the real story. Mikuru from the future? Check. Yuki as a witch? Check. Itsuki as an esper? Wouldn’t bet against it. The only two variables left in the equation are Haruhi and Kyon, and I’m just dying now to see how everything turns out. Are they like San and Ashitaka? Chidori and Sagara? Keroro and Dororo? Cicada‘s Rena and KFC? It’s hard to cut through Kyon’s sarcasm, but why does he stay with SOS?

DOWN Boredom… as in waiting for more. How the hell is something like Himawari supposed to tie me over until more Haruhi? Can’t they just air like six episodes in one day?

18 Responses to “melancholy of haruhi suzumiya 4”

I hypothesize that the next ep is going to detail the origin of Mikuru-ran meido, and I suspect that their going to draw lots to see who pairs with who to search for aliens, time travlers, and espers. Oh and the origin of Itsuki Koizumi the only Koizumi I want to see as Prime Minister of Japan.

If you need something to do you could try translating the novels for the rest of us you know.

I was actually dreading Itsuki’s intro since he looked the playboy-ish anime stereotype. But he actually seems like a pretty cool character in this episode.

The whole time skip puzzled me too but I guess that’s KyoAni taking the whole Haruhi thing and being all unpredictable on us (either that or some intern mislabeled the episodes to be sent to the network to air)

Great Post! I just watched it and more than anything I am wondering why oh why did they skip so far ahead.. and your spoiler makes me wonder, did that occur in the manga timeline before this baseball match?? Also can you post a HD quality shot of this image?http://derailedbydarry.com/ima...../04_35.jpg
Thanks!
-Jesterman

Regarding the red / blue “panty” issue, I’m pretty sure they were actually bloomers. Haruhiverse High School first year track suits are blue, and second year are red, q.e.d.

Still, I’ll take a burumachira as fast as a panchira shot any day.

Regarding the spoileriffic brainstorm shot, that’s the final illustration from the first novel, a few pages from the end of the book. Whether it’s the resolution of said incident or not I can’t say for sure…

you can probably count it like the way haruhi says the show at the end of the credits is the way the show is suppose to be shown ala she gives out the real order of the way they are suppose to be shown i wouldnt be supprised if the base ball episode was suppose to be episode 7 in story timeline but in production to mess with our heads its episode 4 because its the 4th to be shown ;)

Meh, I already knew that there’s something different about Mikuru, Yuki and Itsuki the first time I set my eyes on episode 1. The first thing that came to my mind after watching “The adventures of Asahina Mikuru Ep 00” was that hey, there are definitely non-humans here. Episode 2 merely confirmed my suspicions. But I have to agree that that was some pretty good foreshadowing.

Btw, didn’t anyone see Haruhi’s pissed reaction when she saw Kyon looking at Mikuru’s cheerleading outfit? Do I sense the beginnings of jealousy?… Nah maybe not, Haruhi is just pissed.

It is heavily suggested that Kyon’s relationship with Mikuru rouses jealousy from Haruhi. Hence why Mikuru didn’t want him to help her when she was under attack by baseball. Another hint is the fact that Haruhi did not give Mikuru a pny tail in addition to her cheer leadr outfit. Itsuki also hints at how Kyon is responsible and why Haruhi willed it so that Kyon would be fourth batter.

i dont understand shit i had to watch that episode over and over again, i think its couse i dint read the manga, but since when are they aliens and there are two worlds???, they didnt explain anything im very lost

Im pretty dissapointed in the way the way the story progressed, i mean, it was fun to see what a stuborn girl would do and have everything done her way… and when the club was made i thought numerous random adventures would be made… but when they started with the “she is our last hope” crap, everything went downhill…
Why did the had to put a “we are this girls creation” crap and just stick to a normal stuborn girl???

i just want to know what is going on.
i mean, sure, its bazaar and out there and interesting to watch.

All i have seen of this series are the anime episodes to date. upto 6.
is there a book or something, is there an english version.
Im confused but its so out there its just great to sit around and try to wrap your mind around.